Who Is God To Us?

Matthew 6:9 (NIV)
This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name'

Welcome to day two of my daddy issues - sorry, I mean how we put God first in everything. Today's key point: we pray to him as our Father. 

Look at verse 9: 'Our Father in Heaven.' Jesus says to his disciples, your Father is my Father, and my Father is your Father. How awesome is that! We are able to call the creator of the universe, the creator of all things, our Father. Why? Because his son Jesus said so. 

Jesus was speaking to his disciples in Aramaic; the word for Father he uses, 'Abba', was the same intimate word Jewish people used to call their earthly fathers. Why would Jesus use this same word, 'abba', to convey what God is to all of us? I think because it brings out the warmth and intimacy as well as the authority, of a loving father's care. 

Psalm 103:13 says: 'As a Father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him.' This shows how much he cares for us but also reminds us of the respect we owe him, as a child does its father. This good father cares about our concerns and sufferings. 

Verse 9 reminds us of God's supreme rule over all things in heaven and on earth because Jesus doesn’t just call God our father, he calls him Our Father in Heaven.

In Ephesians 4:6, Paul puts it this way - 'one God and father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.' 

This 'Abba' Lord is all-powerful. Whatever seems too big in your life, remember the Lord is bigger than it all. You have a heavenly father today who has authority over everything on earth and who loves you as his child. 

Prayer - Lord, thank you that you care about every part of my life and that you love me more than I’ll ever know.